ProjExc - Project Management Consultants

Project Management Software - beware the coach before the horses

There are some excellent project management tools out there, both in the traditional licenced applications space and in the already crowded Project Management software as a service (SaaS) or 'cloud applications' arena.

At ProjExc Project Management Consultants we are often asked what is the best tool.  As is often the case this little question deserves a bigger answer. We have experienced that it is critically important to first define how project management is (or should be) done in a business.  At that stage it is appropriate to search the market for the right tool to support what makes the business special and successful. Sadly all too often we are invited in after the business has already been committed to buying the tool, despite what it needs to do not having been identified.

We are constantly watching what is new on the market, and a new SaaS application has come to our attention this week.  Project Minder from IRIS looks good.  It has a nice interface, we like the look of the GANTT chart (this matters to a lot of people) and applaud their attention has also considered resource utilisation.  Sadly to the best of our abilities we have not yet found the pricing on the website (without unleashing their sales team), and in our experience that means that there is some bad news to hide.

As mentioned it is launching in a busy space occupied by the likes of BaseCamp, Huddle, Liquid Planner, Pelotonics, Wizehive, Wrike, and a whole lot more.  Many of these are going through significant updates at present so in the next few months there may be a lot more option open to those who want to use some straightforward tools to improve the success of their projects.  We are working though an article for our Project Management Portal reviewing many of these tools in more detail, and if you would like us to include your favourite tool, do drop us a line with some details.

If you are looking at systemising your project management in order to improve visibility and success rates, then call us now on 0845 527 9971 and arrange a free, no obligation, discussion on what you need and how best you might achieve it in the most cost effective way.

To PRINCE2 or not to PRINCE2?

As regular readers of this blog will know, we have mixed views on PRINCE2 usage.  We note that The Centre for Project Management Practice 2009’s debate is focussing on one of the most hotly disputed topics in current project management research and practice today. 2009 sees the introduction by the OGC of the 4th version of PRINCE2 (which hopefully will be much more pragmatic in it's approach) yet some academics decry the capabilities of formal ‘bodies of knowledge’ and practitioners can see them as strangling their projects in bureaucracy. Visit www.aston.ac.uk/cpmp for more information of what looks to be an interesting session. 

Project Portfolio Management

These days, many companies are finding that an effective way to evaluate the entire portfolio and control costs is to use a Project Portfolio Management (PPM) solution, which make it easier to look at projects as an aggregate collection of cost centres to help identify inefficiencies. With PPM, organisations can also more easily determine which projects add the most value to the business.

   

For example, we note that Keith Carlson, CEO of on-demand PPM vendor Innotas has recently stated "In tough economic times, leaders need to streamline the project portfolio in order to get leaner while still maintaining their ability to produce value. But without an integrated PPM solution, the entire exercise of prioritizing the project portfolio can become uninformed guesswork."

   

Like with many other parts of PM, PMO and Programme Management, with the emergence of web-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, PPM is now available at a fraction of the price of installed solutions. Instead of requiring commitment to costly and inefficient enterprise-wide site licenses, SaaS PPM solutions can be deployed on a subscription or per-seat basis, and users can be added or subtracted at any time. SaaS solutions are also faster to implement and carry a much lower risk burden than traditional enterprise software. Whatever type of PPM solution an organisation chooses – installed or SaaS – there are several key steps to evaluating the project portfolio:

   

1. compare high-value projects to decide on the right combination to fund.
2. evaluate and rank which projects are the most valuable to the organization.
3. look for ways to allocate limited resources to the most important projects by ensuring high-value projects are properly covered and the delivery process is in place to ensure happy stakeholders.
4. look for opportunities to merge projects and gain efficiencies. Ask how projects relate to each other, has the company developed a consistent and holistic view of the overall project portfolio and can these projects be combined into one integrated initiative.
5. monitor project performance closely to get better control of potential cost overruns.

 

With PPM in place as a centralised, visible management framework, unforeseen cost overrun meltdowns can be avoided more easily. 

 

We note that Innotas recently released a white paper, "Focus Under Pressure: Why Project Portfolio Management Becomes Mission-Critical in a Down Economy," which defines five key steps to evaluating the project portfolio with an eye for cutting costs and doing more with less (http://www.innotas.com/resources/whitepapers.html). A theme close to the hearts of a number of our clients right now!

Project Excellence – elements for success

Project Excellence is increasingly becoming the key to business success. We often work with our clients on a "three-legged stool" model of project excellence and how to keep the balance right for business projects:

Element 1 – Processes
The first of the 3 elements of project excellence (and so business success) is getting the process or methodology right. Balance is critical. Too simple and there is no benefit, too complex and no-one can follow it.

Element 2 - Tools
The second of the 3 elements is equipping project managers with appropriate tools and templates. We consider the scope of these tools, their purpose and how to avoid common pitfalls (like buying an expensive tool that doesn't fit the business process). On our PM Portal we list many of the PM tools which we commonly come across in our consultancy work.

Element 3 - People (Usually Leadership)
Finally, the people angle. It is imperative that project managers are given the skills appropriate to achieving success. It sounds simple but this critical element is all too often overlooked. In addition to the usual "hard" project management skills (planning, estimating, reporting, risk management, quality management, ....) we find that leadership and client relationship management are an increasingly critical element in the competence toolkit.

If you'd like to know more about how ProjExc can help sort the elements out for your organisation call us for a free, no obligation chat on 0121 250 3534, or visit our website to find out more.

The cost of failing to plan

Sadly no surprises to those of us at ProjExc, from an article discussing the cost of failing to plan a project. For the full article, refer to onrec.com.

The article explains that UK companies are wasting millions of pounds every day on development projects because their planning process is flawed from the outset. They refer to a new survey of 500 professional project managers showing a third of technology assignments in the digital, media and telecoms industries are doomed from the start because they have been so poorly conceived.

The survey from PM3 Consulting, says companies often fall at the first hurdle because they have failed to establish a coherent or realistic business case for a project. "Most worrying is the inability of these companies to identify the real benefits of a project or what it will really cost," say the consultants "As a result projects run over time, over budget, deliver poor quality products and often fail to realise any tangible business benefits at all."

Like the consultants who delivered the survey ProjExc believe the answer is to get experienced project managers in place. We also believe that as well as competent project managers, they usually need a toolbox with appropriate processes, systems and of course that elusive leadership ability at hand.

The research found that "many companies can't articulate what they want from a project, yet 89% recognise that they need a project manager to take overall control,", and that over half of companies (51%) have unrealistic expectations of their projects and 56% do not define their project success criteria.

Lean Methodology

Following on from the popular Six Sigma post our manufacturing and supply chain specialist Clifford Hobbs, delves into the world of Lean Methodologies.  The whole article can be found on the ProjExc PM Portal.

Most of the tools and techniques that underpin Lean thinking originated in Japan in the 60's and 70's in companies such as Toyota. In the 80's and 90's they combined into what is now called Lean, and this broader concept of manufacturing has progressively been introduced to western manufacturers, and more recently to the service sector.

Lean is often described as an approach where waste is systematically eliminated from an organisation's processes. At its most basic level, it involves a systematic focus on rework, inventory, poor reliability, poor quality, and poor throughput throughout the organisation, and its supply chain.

A '... philosophy that shortens the time line between the customer order and the shipment by eliminating waste'.

Lean is the term that was introduced to describe the philosophy and practices under-pinning the Toyota Production System (TPS). TPS (developed in the 1970's) was a vastly superior system of manufacturing than that found in most western automotive manufacturers. Fundamentally TPS was challenging the foundations of mass production, by creating systems and an operating culture that enabled the company to manufacture a considerable variety of products, with high levels of efficiency and quality.

'To be a lean manufacturer requires a way of thinking that focuses on making the product flow through production without interruption, a pull system that cascades back from customer demand by replenishing what the next operation takes away at short intervals, and a culture in which everyone is striving continuously to improve.'

A key ingredient of the Lean approach is its emphasis on the creation of customer focused 'value chains' to help focus its improvement efforts.

Lean Manufacturing has helped companies to overcome some of the difficulties they experienced with introducing Just In Time. In some instances, JIT was seen as a blunt instrument for reducing working capital requirements. This objective was often very dangerous in practice as forced reductions of stock levels often caused major problems in businesses that lacked basic process dependability. This meant that companies de-stocked faster than they could improve, as a result serious customer service problems ensued.  JIT placed great pressure on supply chains. It is one thing to determine the capability of your own company but not so easy to ensure integrity of supply from a large and diverse supplier base. It soon became apparent that JIT required a partnership between supplier and customer.  Both of the examples above resulted in “pseudo” improvement programmes, as no attempt was made to approach the introduction of JIT in an organisation wide sense.

To be effective JIT needed waste reduction in all areas of an organisation, and in the supply chain. Lean Manufacturing approaches the issue of waste from a total process/total organisation perspective, and therefore addresses the need for capable processes, effective supply chains etc.

Six Sigma

This post has been prepared by the ProjExc Manufacturing and Supply Chain Specialist, Clifford Hobbs. It is an excerpt from a more detailed review of Six Sigma and Lean methodologies to improve business performance, which no doubt come to light in future posts on the ProjExc Blog.

Introduction - Six Sigma is a highly customer focused improvement tool that is underpinned by a philosophy of rigorous measurement.

'a comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining and maximising business success. Six Sigma is uniquely driven by close understanding of customer needs, disciplined use of facts, data and statistical analysis and diligent attention to managing, improving and reinventing business processes'

The term 'sigma' means "Standard Deviation". Standard Deviation measures the variability in a given distribution or population of events and can therefore be applied to a process.

Motorola developed Six Sigma in the mid 80's. It was then successfully championed by Jack Welsh at General Electric in the 1990's. Their success stories have prompted many western (and in particular USA) manufacturers to adopt Six Sigma. More recently companies in the service sector have started to introduce and adopt Six Sigma practices.

There are many aspects of Six Sigma that are similar to Total Quality Management (TQM), which preceded Six Sigma and in many peoples view has now been superseded by Six Sigma.

Overview - Sigma can be translated into the number of defects per million "events".

Six sigma represents 3.4 defects per million events and is regarded as the ultimate goal for process performance - as close to perfection as is practicable.

This following gives the sigma to defect conversion ratio:

Six Sigma = 3.4 Defects per Million
Five Sigma = 230 Defects per Million
Four Sigma = 6210 Defects per Million
Three Sigma = 66,800 Defects per Million
Two Sigma = 308,000 Defects per Million
One Sigma = 690,000 Defects per Million.

The ultimate goal of a Six Sigma programme is to reduce the number of defects per million opportunities to 3.4 - the equivalent of a 99.997% quality level.

Methodologies - There are different approaches to implementing Six Sigma although the main principles are as follows:

1.    Identify core processes and key customers
2.    Define customer requirements
3.    Measure current performance
4.    Prioritise, analyse and implement improvements
5.    Expand and integrate the Six Sigma system.

The Six Sigma approach is strongly focused on ensuring effective processes from the perspective of the final customer. Critical processes are identified as part of the analysis of customer requirements, and statistical methods are applied to measure the variation of these processes against customer/market determined "tolerances". Techniques such as SPC and Design of Experiments are used to identify the root cause of poor process capability or to monitor processes in real time.

Improvement cycles are core to Six Sigma. An example being as follows:

1.    Prioritise areas of improvement
2.    Define processes that contribute to problems
3.    Measure the capability of each process
4.    Analyse the data
5.    Control process variability
6.    Standardise methods
7.    Integrate methods into design/process cycle

There are many statistical tools that are used within Six Sigma including: Quality Function Deployment, Run Charts, Pareto Charts, Histograms, Fishbone diagrams, Process Mapping, Design of Experiments, Project Definition, F-tests, Chi-Square Tests, Multivariate Studies, Fractional Factorials and Failure Mode and Effect Analysis.

Summary - Six Sigma pulls together well established operational tools and techniques that have been around for a number of decades. Over the last few years it has become increasingly popular with larger organisations and non manufacturing organisations. This is because it is very customer focused and has a strong emphasis on measurement and delivery of quantifiable benefit.

However, introducing Six Sigma is a high profile company-wide event and therefore the consequence of failure is significant. It is very 'resource hungry', and as with any major change initiative, will require total commitment from across the organisation and the infrastructure and organisation to support it.

The focus of much of the approach is on advanced statistical techniques, which can be complex and inappropriate for the majority of organisations, where the real challenge is to build simple and robust foundations for improvement. The advanced tools have their uses within an organisation that has already put in place the basic foundations of operational good practice, but their premature introduction in the wrong circumstances can place Six Sigma in the 'next failed initiative' category, making further improvement even harder.

Success in a Six Sigma program is subject to the same influences as many other change programmes i.e. leadership commitment to the program, involvement of staff at an early stage, integration of the change programme into the business practices of the organisation, good change management skills, and a clear focus on the end goal. Six Sigma Programmes (and Lean Programmes) are usually total company initiatives involving significant roll out costs, training and dedicated resource.

Effective Six Sigma programmes build on organisational capability and culture such as Continuous Improvement, Best Practice, team working and a measurement focus.

Six Sigma should not be viewed as something new or revolutionary and distinct from the day to day disciplines that companies should build in to their operations.

Comments on this posting from ProjExc Manufacturing and Supply Chain Specialist, Clifford Hobbs, are welcomed on the blog, or if you would like to discuss the subject some more, then contact details can be found on the ProjExc corporate website.

10 Tips for Great IT Managers

I recently read a great article on ZDNET providing advice to IT managers challenged by the common problem of reaction overtaking their proaction.  The advice in summary provides 10 great tips:

1. Spend time (and money) developing your people
2. Get to know what your staff really does
3. Don't do it for them
4. Know the business and make sure it knows you
5. Treat communication as a busy, fast-moving, two-way street
6. Encourage everyone to work as a team
7. Provide feedback regularly and let employees know what you want
8. Hire well
9. Understand best IT practices, but don't just make them buzz words
10. Be a good project manager

The advice to be a good project manager is:
"Did your last project suffer scope creep? Most projects, particularly IT ones, don't fail because the project itself was bad. Most failures are a result of weak project management. If you haven't had any formal project management training, find and invest in a good program.  Don't fall into the trap of thinking that simply by having regular meetings, you are managing the project. And since IT usually has more projects than people, be sure to train lead workers with basic project management skills so you can delegate specific aspects of the project or even entire projects to their control."

This is good advice, but only part of the story.  In our experience at ProjExc, it is critically important that those managing projects (especially if it is not their main responsibility) are given the support of appropriate methods/processes and systems which match the methods, otherwise the investment in the training can be wasted or worse.